So You Want To Be a Chef

In the time that I've been a professional cook, the culinary world has blown up. Every time you turn around, there is a new "celebrity" chef or a hot new cooking show. It seems like every community college has added a culinary program and they are turning out fresh young "chefs" into the industry at an alarming rate. Armed with a diploma and a dream, they set out to turn the culinary world upside down only to find the reality of the food service industry far less glamorous than Bobbie Flay or Wolfgang Puck led them to believe.

Usually, working in the culinary world is like living in a photographic negative of the real world. Cooks work nights. Cooks work weekends. Cooks work holidays. While the rest of the world is enjoying their leisure time, cooks are busting ass to feed everyone. Cooks are under-paid and under-appreciated. Most restaurants laugh at the idea of benefits. It's a hard industry, and to become successful in it takes an extreme level of sacrifice. It takes its toll on individuals and usually takes a bigger toll on their families. The industry has a reputation of being a haven for people with drug and alcohol problems. The industry either attracts this type of individual or, in equal measure, creates them. Often cooks move from restaurant to restaurant following a mirage that looks like opportunity only to find themselves in the same wasteland they have been in for years.

This point of this grim assessment is only to show that this industry isn't what many people perceive and it definitely isn't for everyone. It's a career that in order to succeed you must be very passionate, extremely dedicated, and possibly a little bit more than a little bit crazy. You have to thrive under pressure, live for fast paced, be willing to work as many hours as it takes to get the job done. For some people it's the only life they can imagine living. For others it will break them before they ever truly get started.

 I am very lucky. I spent 20 years in the grind of the restaurant world. I walked away from it swearing that I wouldn't work with food again only to find I found no joy in anything else. I somehow found my way into a job as a chef in health care. I still work a lot. There is still a lot of pressure. It's still hectic. But I somehow manage to work Monday through Friday. I'm home by 5 pm almost every day. I take holidays off. I get all the things that I always loved about the job in an environment that allows me to have a high level of normalcy in my life. I have somehow found the best of both world and literally feel like I should pinch myself some days. It's like a dream.

I'll give some version of this description to anyone talking about going into a career in the culinary world. Not to discourage them but to hopefully help them understand the reality and the gravity of the choice they are making. I tell them that if you love food and cooking, don't let that be your only reason behind going into it as a career. Anyone can love food and cooking and still enjoy it every day without making the sacrifices that being a professional chef demands. We can all enjoy the beauty and opportunities for creativity that food affords us.